The Discoverer Replacement Program, in partnership with Oracle Grants Accounting Project Stakeholders, is hosting a Discoverer to Cognos roadshow.

The goal of this roadshow, tailored specifically for users of Oracle Grants Accounting, is to show where key reports can be found in the new IBM Cognos Reporting tool. In addition to this demo, you’ll also learn how to access and run them. This roadshow is an opportunity to learn how to transition confidently to the new Cognos reporting tool.

Led by senior instructor Julie Rhodes, along with a team of ITG business analysts, you’ll have direct access to see the new tool live and have your questions answered.

For research scientists whose technical innovations have the potential to improve patient care, OHSU created the Biomedical Innovation Program. For four years now, BIP has been providing expertise and resources to steward innovations from the laboratory to clinical application through the process of commercialization. The program is a joint effort between Technology Transfer and Business Development and the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute.

Dr. Muschler has been researching novel approaches to detect and treat diseases of the bladder since he joined OHSU in 2011. There are few treatment options for these diseases, and those therapies are ineffective and costly. Dr. Muschler’s laboratory has developed a technology platform that effectively targets early stage tumor cells in the bladder, making possible early detection and treatment.

As a 2015 BIP grant awardee, Dr. Muschler received funding and development, innovation education, project management support, and mentorship. His technology is now much closer to the marketplace.

OCTRI: As a BIP alumnus, who do you see benefiting from the program?

JM: For anyone with an invention that has commercial potential, the BIP program is an excellent mechanism to move it forward and test the waters. There are many benefits. Learning to think like an inventor or an entrepreneur is a valuable education in itself. And the BIP program can connect you to many creative, helpful, and insightful people.

OCTRI: Tell us how your research led you to the BIP.

JM: A research discovery of ours suggested a new method of targeted drug delivery. We filed an invention disclosure with OHSU Technology Transfer & Business Development, and were then looking for ways to quickly continue the work and develop its commercial potential. A colleague suggested OCTRI and the BIP as a source of early stage funding.

OCTRI: How was your experience with the BIP different from that with other funding sources?

JM: First, in preparing our submission for the BIP grant, we were required to provide information that you don’t see in standard grant proposals. These included a market overview for the proposed product and an outline of the path to commercialization. Also, reviewers of the BIP proposals provided commercialization experience that was helpful in guiding the project. Lastly, and most importantly, the BIP continued to support the team after the award was funded. Throughout the course of the grant, the BIP provided support for the project through connections to people with experience in the various steps of commercialization.

OCTRI: How has participating in the BIP helped move your technology forward?

JM: Obviously, the early stage funding has been crucial to keeping the project alive and to advancing the research. By helping me learn the paths to commercialization, the BIP is also helping to plan ahead and efficiently prepare for the next steps in the commercialization without wasting valuable time.

OCTRI: Can you talk about what you have learned from participating in the program?

JM: The BIP has helped me learn the path from research discovery to product commercialization. Through the BIP, with guidance from program staff and interactions with entrepreneurs, I have begun to step out of the “research scientist” mindset and become more comfortable thinking like an inventor and entrepreneur. A product that makes it to market offers many rewards; there’s a lot to gain with little to lose.

The BIP is a partnership between the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute and OHSU’s Office of Technology Transfer & Business Development. Visit the OCTRI funding page for information on the BIP and other opportunities. For more information on OCTRI resources for investigators and research staff, contact the OCTRI Research Navigator.

The OHSU community is invited to join Donate Life Northwest for the 2016 Lifesavers Breakfast. The OHSU Transplant Program works closely with Donate Life Northwest, which helps make it possible for OHSU to transplant more than 200 organs each year. This event supports the organization’s mission to increase organ, eye, and tissue donation.

The program includes keynote speakers sharing their stories of living donation, recognition of the donors, and celebration of the people who make donation and transplantation possible.

Registration is required. Send your name and preferred email address to Sondra Tootell.

There is no cost for attendance or breakfast, but contributions will be requested. Each breakfast costs Donate Life Northwest roughly $30.

The Clinical and Translational Research Center now offers OHSU investigators access to a Research Volunteer Registry of subjects interested in participating in research projects. The registry also includes a biorepository with serum, plasma, urine, and saliva from healthy subjects. These biological samples are immediately available as control samples. You can access the volunteer names, contact information, and biological samples in this registry more quickly and less expensively than using traditional recruitment methods.

The CTRC has obtained IRB approval to share these names and samples with investigators. The volunteers have pre-consented to be contacted for future research studies with an umbrella IRB-approved consent form. In most cases, investigators do not need to submit their own IRB protocols to access the biological samples. For volunteer names and contact information, the CTRC will work with investigators to obtain additional IRB approval in an expedited fashion if it is needed.

The registry currently has medical histories, medication lists, and contact information for more than 400 volunteers. Most subjects are healthy; some have chronic conditions. The biorepository currently houses biological samples from 140 healthy individuals who have no chronic medical conditions and take no medications.

Technology Transfer and Business Development invites all OHSU innovators – faculty, students, fellows, employees – to a lunchtime gathering to learn about its expanded entrepreneur-in-residence program. Veterans Dick Rylander and Bob Masterson will be joined by two new entrepreneurs-in-residence Rob Arnold and Steve Runnels, who will share who will share details on how their expertise in starting health care and life science companies can help OHSU innovators commercialize their technologies. They will talk about how they support inventor teams and new companies that form when they license technology intellectual property from OHSU. Three new venture advisors, Eric Fogel, Mark Freiss, and Ron Nelson, will also discuss their roles in the expanded entrepreneur-in-residence program. As venture advisors, they might step in as an interim or full-time CEO in an OHSU company as part of the start-up process.

During the hour, in addition to hearing from experts, you can get advice for how to start or move forward with your idea, find a mentor, or schedule one-on-one conversations for a later date.

You’re invited to hear a panel discussion with OHSU faculty who are currently serving on NIH study sections to learn about best practices for grant writing–and especially what they’re seeing in grants they’re reviewing with respect to the new requirements on rigor and reproducibility and more. Among other things, they will discuss guidance they’ve received from NIH as reviewers, as well as how study sections are responding. Bring your questions!

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke will no longer participate in the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (Parent F32). As of the Dec. 8, 2016 due date, F32 postdoctoral fellows research training support will be available through a separate announcement with several key differences from the parent F32. Most notably, applicants are only eligible prior to starting, or within the first 12 months of starting, their postdoctoral training. As such, no preliminary data are expected.

The NINDS F32 will support postdocs who are in their first three years of training in their sponsor’s lab. NINDS anticipates releasing a K01 announcement in time for the Feb. 12, 2017 initial receipt date that will allow applicants in their second through fourth year of training to apply.

Additionally, a webinar will be held on Dec. 13, 2016 from 3 – 4:00p.m. EST to walk potential applicants and mentors through the process of applying for the Diversity Advanced Postdoctoral Career Transition Award (K22). Hear from K22 awardees and reviewers about common mistakes and helpful tips.

OHSU’s Facilities and Administrative rate for industry-sponsored research agreements will increase by 3%, effective January 1, 2017. The new rate will not apply to industry-sponsored clinical trials, federal awards such as SBIR/STTR awards, or ONPRC industry-sponsored agreements, but it will apply to all other industry-sponsored agreements entered into by Technology Transfer and Business Development on or after January 1, 2017. All currently funded projects will remain fixed at their awarded rate unless additional funding is added after January 1, 2017.

Beginning immediately, you should use the new rates to prepare proposal budgets for projects starting on or after January 1. Please contact your department administrator for questions with developing budgets using the new rates.

This is the first F&A rate increase for non-clinical industry-sponsored research agreements at OHSU since 2010. The change brings OHSU’s rate close to the average rate of the top 50 NIH grant recipients. The rate for externally sponsored research at OHSU will increase to 57% and other sponsored activity will increase to 35%. Rates for clinical projects will not change.

Sudarshan Anand, Ph.D., assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, was recognized as New Inventor of the Yearfor his work with TTBD Understanding the role of microRNAs in cancer blood vessels and their response to DNA damaging agents is the major focus of Anand’s lab.

Matthew Hansen, M.D., M.C.R.

TheBusiness Development Partnership Achievement Award was presented to Matthew Hansen, M.D., M.C.R., and David Sheridan, M.D., both assistant professors of pediatric emergency medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. The two have been instrumental in the success of OHSU’s partnership with Welch Allyn, Inc.

David Sheridan, M.D.

TheTechnology Transfer Achievement Award was presented to David Huang, M.D., Ph.D., Peterson Professor of Ophthalmology and professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering at the OHSU School of Medicine and the Casey Eye Institute. He was honored for his long-term work with TTBD and co-invention of optical coherence tomography.

The NIH is the largest funder of clinical trials in the U.S., investing over $3 billion each year. Standards for scientific rigor and ethical oversight must be exceptionally high because the health and safety of human subjects are at stake. But challenges in the design, efficiency, and reporting of clinical trials are well documented–and may even threaten the progress of biomedicine.

In a recent JAMA article, Kathy Hudson, Ph.D., deputy director for Science, Outreach and Policy at NIH, Michael Lauer, M.D., deputy director for extramural research, and NIH Director Francis Collins describe several new initiatives for improving clinical trials. Their aim is to catalyze more innovative and robust trial design and accelerated access to discoveries. Several new policies are being rolled out to this end.

1. The Department of Health and Human Services issued a new regulation and the National Institutes of Health rolled out a new policy to increase availability of information about clinical trials. The DHHS regulation, known as The Final Rule, implements existing FDA requirements to register and report clinical trials on ClinicalTrials.gov. The NIH policy complements The Final Rule and applies to all clinical trials funded by NIH, regardless of whether they are subject to the regulation. Both the NIH policy and the Final Rule will take effect Jan. 18, 2017. Here are some resources to help you better understand the changes:

2. A new NIH policy requires all applications involving clinical trials be submitted through a Funding Opportunity Announcement specifically designed for clinical trials. NIH will no longer accept applications through parent FOAs or other announcements not specific to clinical trials. The aim is to ensure that key trial protocol information will be included in a standard way across clinical trial applications. The target effective date for this policy is Sept. 27, 2017.

3. A policy issued in June, 2016 requires use of a single institutional review board for multi-site studies in order to streamline and expedite IRB review. The first applications that will incorporate the new requirements will be for those with due dates of May 25, 2017. Resources are still under development – stay tuned for more information and guidance.

5. A clinical trial protocol template is being developed with input from the research community. An updated template should be released this fall to be used as a way to organize and standardize key details that should be included in clinical trial protocols.